Salary of a Gas Station Manager

Managers of gas stations can expect to deal with issues such as gas pricing, inventory of snacks and small items in their store, vendors, theft, angry customers and broken gas pumps. For all this work, gas station managers can expect to make between $40,000 to $90,000 a year.

Gas station managers have a stressful job, but they get paid for their management skills

Lower End of the Scale

Gas station manager wages depend on factors such as location, experience and whether the manager works for a corporation or a franchise. The Department of Labor estimated that the lowest salary for a general management position in the U.S. was around $21.50 an hour, just over $44,800 a year, as of 2011. This wage applied to the bottom 10 percent of managers nationally, and the Department of Labor bases its estimates on research conducted across the entire U.S. Keep in mind this is not the lowest possible wage but rather an average of the lowest 10 percent of wages the Department of Labor surveyed.

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Higher End of the Scale

At the other end of the payscale for managers in the U.S., the DOL found that the highest management wages were more than $80 an hour, or more than $166,000 a year. This wage applies to all management positions, including major retail chains and restaurants, and gas station managers only compose about 1 percent of these management positions, according to DOL. A gas station manager is not likely to make a six-figure salary no matter what kind of experience he has, but he may fall into one of the lower percentiles. For example, the top 50th percentile of managers in the U.S. are estimated to make around $44 an hour, or just over $90,000 a year.

Median National Salary

The Department of Labor provides pay scales so you can get a feel for the extremes at both ends of a general industry you're looking at. It also narrows down positions to show a more realistic example of wages, and gas station managers can expect an average pay of around $30 an hour, or $62,500 a year.

Ways to Raise Your Salary

If you want to make more money as a gas station manager, there are a few things you can do. One is to relocate to a larger city, where the cost of living is generally higher. School can be another way to prove you are worth more money. While a degree is usually not required to run a gas station, you can possibly increase your wages by earning a degree. Even an associate's degree will put you ahead of almost 90 percent of other gas station operators, according to Onetonline.org.